Short-term sugar stress induces compositional changes and loss of diversity of the supragingival microbiota

ABSTRACT

Frequent intake of free sugars is a major risk factor for dental caries, but the immediate influence of sugar intake on the supragingival microbiota remains unknown. We aim to characterize the effect of 14 days of sugar rinsing on the supragingival microbiota. Forty orally and systemically healthy participants rinsed their mouth with a 10% sucrose solution, 6–8 times a day, for 14 days, followed by 14 days without sugar stress. Supragingival plaque samples were collected at baseline, and after 14, and 28 days. The supragingival microbiota was analyzed using 16S rDNA sequencing. Taxonomic classification was performed using the Human Oral Microbiome Database. After 14 days of sugar stress induced by the daily sugar rinses, a significant loss of α-diversity (p = 0.02) and a significant increase in the relative abundance of Actinomyces (6.5% to 9.6%, p = 0.006) and Corynebacterium (6.2% to 9.1%, p = 0.03) species were recorded. In addition, a significant decrease in Streptococcus (10.3% to 6.1%, p = 0.001) species was observed. Sugar-mediated changes returned to baseline conditions 14 days after the last sugar rinse. The present study shows that temporary sugar stress induces loss of diversity and compositional changes to the supragingival microbiota, which are reversible if oral care is maintained.

KEYWORDS:

• Oral microbiota
• dental plaque
• 16S rDNA
• sugar stress
• clinical trial

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the clinical and laboratory personnel at the Department of Odontology, University of Copenhagen, for their help with the production of the sugar solution and assistance regarding clinical examinations. DNA sequencing was done by DNASense, Aalborg, Denmark. Nikoline Nygaard proofread the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Raw sequences have been deposited in European Nucleotide Archive (ENA, www.ebi.ac.uk, accessed on 7 March 2023) with the accession number PRJEB58919.

Author contribution

D.B., C.L.-O., C.D., and M.M. contributed to the conception of the study. C.L.-O. performed all aspects of the clinical trial. DNA sequencing was performed using DNASense. DNASense, V.V. and C.L.-O. performed the statistical analyses. All aspects of contribution from DNASense were performed as a pay for service. D.B., C.L-O., C.D., M.M., and V.V. contributed to the data’s acquisition, analysis, and interpretation. C.L.-O. and D.B. wrote the first draft of the manuscript. C.D., MM., and V.V. critically revised the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was performed following the Helsinki declaration and approved by the regional ethical committee (H-21003295). Additionally, the study was reported to the local data authorization of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen (514–0434/19–3000) and registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (UCPH_01_005) (accessed on 7 March 2023).

Informed Consent Statement

Participants were recruited at the Department of Odontology, University of Copenhagen, and all participants signed informed consent before participation.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Innovationsfonden [1044-00093B].